Tech sector in need of skills
IT, accounting, engineering jobs in high demand in the country, survey shows
Software development, IT, mid-level management, engineering and specialist accounting positions are what SA companies want to fill the most.
With those in these positions steadily being snapped up by overseas businesses because of their skills and higher wage offers, the pressure is now on recruiting agencies to find, attract and persuade people in these fields to stay in the country.
A survey by the online job recruitment company CareerJunction shows that since January there has been an 18% increase in demands by businesses for mid-level managers and a 6% increase in requests for skilled IT workers, with “high demands” for financial and project accountants.
“Job volumes for professionals in these fields have steadily increased during the past three months,” states CareerJunction in its latest monthly job index study.
The index shows that while year-on-year skills demand has decreased “significantly” in the health, sales, administration, office, support and marketing sectors, “a strong demand persists for professionals in finance, business and management, IT, architecture and engineering”.
The index shows that trending jobs for November included roles within executive management, purchasing and procurement and building project management.
The survey states that trending jobs “provide an indication of positions that have become more popular in the online job market and has seen a recent spike in demand”. CareerJunction spokesperson Odile Badenhorst said the survey was done on a monthly basis.
“We use the index to conduct a month-onmonth, quarter-on-quarter and a year-onyear analysis of the job market.”
She said the positions employers were currently looking to fill were for software development, IT, mid-level management, engineering and accounting.
Badenhorst said there was demand for those workers because there were not many people in the country with those kinds of skills.
“Software and IT development are scarce skills. It is the same for accountants and engineers, where there is a high demand, but limited supply.
“The reason for this is that many people do not have the money to go study for these skills. SA is not unique when it comes to such skills shortages, and we have noticed that those who do have these qualifications are being headhunted and moving abroad, where there are better work opportunities.”
Badenhorst said other reasons for a limited number of people in the country with these skill sets, especially IT, which was the most sought-after skills set on CareerJunction, were salaries. “The IT sector fell to the bottom of the list for annual wage increases and experienced negative growth in wages of -3% year-on-year. The finance and construction sectors saw a minimal growth in wages of only 1%.”
However she added the finance, engineering and IT sectors dominated the SA job market where earning potential was concerned, with the highest earning professionals including engineers, accountants, financial analysts, asset managers, corporate lenders, business architects, IT project administrators and business and data analysts.
Badenhorst said the index showed the skills that were least sought after related to the education and training, hospitality, science and technology, sports and fitness, legal, design, media and arts and community and social welfare sectors.
Kineta John, Greys Recruitment Agency SA’s social media manager, said there had been a high volume of requests for people with software development skills, followed by IT skills
“People are being sought for their IT, software development and accountancy skills because there is a boom in the market.
“There are also demands for civil transport engineers.”
“Other skills in demand this year are those who are skilled in electrical engineering and mechatronics [electrical and mechanical engineering specialists].” – Times Select and